Paradise Glossed: The Representation of Backpacker Ideals in The Beach

There is a scene near the end of the 20th Century Fox film The Beach (Danny Boyle, 2000) – based on British author Alex Garland’s bestseller about backpackers in Southeast Asia – that highlights the fraught real-life politics between millenial Western tourists and local residents in Thailand. This movie, filmed with a budget of $US fifty million and produced by British company Figment Films, pivots its story around a young American called Richard (Leonardo DiCaprio) who is searching for authentic travel experiences in the East.3 While in Bangkok, a suicidal Scottish backpacker bequeaths Richard a map leading the way to a perfect, unspoiled beach on an isolated island near Phuket. With the aid of a young French couple, Richard locates the island, where the trio discover a virtually self-sufficient Western backpacker community. Over time a series of events – shark attack, the ongoing threat of tourist discovery, infidelity, murder – takes the pleasure out of this supposedly idyllic paradise and Richard is quickly alienated from the ideal backpacking community.